Kenny Reff

Photos & Video of Catharsis on the Mall

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A big thank you goes out to all the volunteers who helped make Catharsis on the Mall: A Vigil for Healing the Drug War a HUGE success. To pay for this free event, we are still trying to hit our goal of $4,000, so please donate a little green! We hope to organize this type vigil again and have created a Facebook Page to help get the word out. Donations are used entirely to offset costs of building materials, permits, and rentals.

The Temple of Essence was open to the public for 24 hours allowing people to write on the walls inside messages about the drug war.
Michael Verdon’s Temple of Essence was open to the public for 24 hours allowing people to write on the walls inside messages about the drug war.(Photo by Kenny Reff)

Photo by Cherry Savoy
More than 1000 people attended a midnight burning of artist Michael Verdon’s Temple of Essence on the national Mall on November 21, 2015. Contained inside the temple were all copies of petitions signed by 56,000 people that put Initiative 71 on the ballot to legalize marijuana. (Photo by Cherry Savoy)

Once burning Verdon's temple transformed by fire into a rendition of a jail cell. Only when the lotus shaped temple burned down could one see the bars of the cell which eventually collapsed to the cheers of all in attendance.
Once burning Verdon’s temple transformed by fire into a rendition of a jail cell. Only when the lotus shaped temple burned down could one see the bars of the cell which eventually collapsed to the cheers of all in attendance. (Photo by Kenny Reff)

Check out some more photos from Catharsis: DCist, Kenny Reff, Ben Droz, Matt Eclair, William Tanksley, and many more on the Facebook Event Page.